My life story begins from a rural village in Southern India. My mother was the principal at the village community school, and my father was in the merchant navy. They instilled in me the core value of ‘Public Service’ and to put people and community before me.

I crossed the seas to pursue higher studies in Cambridge University, UK as a Cambridge Commonwealth Scholar. As I became increasingly passionate about protecting rights, I worked on the UN & ILO projects to serve migrant workers in Asia, support education of child laborers in Benin, West Africa and to uphold the rights of unorganized service workers in India. In my early days, I was privileged to work with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi to protect children from the worst forms of child labor.

My grassroots level work to defend and protect migrant, labor, and child rights exposed me to the gaps and opportunities in public policy, which led me to graduate studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. Since then, I have been proud to call this beautiful country with the most amazing people my home.

We raised both our daughters in the Lincoln Park community where the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School became our second home. I served as the Local School Council member/Chair for 6 years, where I led the school during the pandemic days which we had to navigate without a school principal. We organized one of the first COVID vaccination drives for the community as soon as the pediatric vaccine came out. Litcy worked with educators, parents, community leaders and elected representatives to ensure childrens’ interests are kept above all else

I continue to serve as the Girl Scouts Troop leader for two troops. Our Junior Girl Scouts troop created a beautiful, landscaped garden for our school this summer. Our older Girl Scouts Troop collaborated with Lincoln Central Association and maintained the local butterfly garden in the Lincoln Central Park for a few years, thus serving their community. Both my troops have prepared food for Lincoln Park Community Services for the unhoused residents as well as for women survivors in Deborah’s Place. Our tightly-knit group of families strongly believe in community service and teach our kids to become empowered citizens, always willing to lend a helping hand.

To defend the democratic values we all cherish, I have worked on the ground for presidential campaigns as well as campaigns for key Senate races in battleground states (PA, GA, WI, MI) to help elect Democratic Party candidates. I have also worked in multiple continents to uphold human rights, especially children’s rights through advocacy and policy research.

I am a passionate community leader and coalition builder who strongly believes we can bridge our differences and solve our problems by bringing people together to achieve shared goals.